Foundation Bricks
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ROMA HEROES FOUNDATION BRICKS • 1 CONTENTS Introduction 4 1. Needs and realities 6 2. Empathy and the potential of art 28 3. Building community through storytelling 46 4. Why does (Roma) drama matter? 48 5. The Hero 49 6. Methodologies related art and youth work 55 7. Roma Theatre 74 8. Methodology and results of the Roma Heroes pilot workshops 94 9. The potential of games in the method 99 FOUNDATION BRICKS ROMA HEROES Written by: Marton Illes Ursula Mainardi Andrada Rosu Sebastiano Spinella Tamás Szegedi Sonia Carmona Tapia • 3 INTRODUCTION The Roma people belong to the biggest ethnic minority of Europe and the attitude towards them are among the most negative ones within the EU reported by Eurobarometer. The members of this group face so- cial and economic problems and discrimination more often than most of the other minority groups. As they face different kind of challenges, their inclusion can be realized only in a complex way, which includes social, economic, educational, cultural, and other aspects as well. As they experience situations in which they are treated (or they perceive themselves to be treated) as ‘invaluable’ citizens or victims more often than the members of the majority, their self-esteem is eroded and they hardly ever believe that they can shape their own lives and that of the other members of their communities. This tendency is getting worse as they do not see cultural values, human examples, or positive stories related to the success of other active Roma people, that could inspire them. The lack of such stories and cultural values (or at least their visibility) ruins also the knowledge and attitudes of the members of the majority regarding the Roma groups. The economic and social initiatives that try to improve this situation very often fail because it is hard to empower a group that lacks its own cultural heritage that could inspire them to become active citizens. The complex inclusion can be successful in case it also has a focus on cultural inclusion. The Roma cultural heritage is rich in the fields of music, dance or even fine arts – genres, which are more about feelings than active dramatic heroes that make decisions based on their values, take the responsi- bility, do actions, and bring change into their own lives and into the lives of the other members of their communities. In our opinion, the ‘victim’ narrative cannot empower a group or bring its members closer to mainstream society, but the narrative of ‘heroes and actors’ can. 4 • Introduction We – four Roma and interethnic theatre organizations - will create a methodology and realize workshops by which we will work with young people focusing on the values of Roma theatre, dramatic heroes, the heroes living around them and their own heroic acts. With the help of our initiative we will empower them, develop their intergroup atti- tudes and relations, creative, cooperative skills, self-expression, and critical thinking. In this material we present the historical and social contexts of the partner countries, where the project is realized parallelly and we de- scribe the target groups we will work with. Afterwards, we will high- light why art in general, especially theatre, storytelling and different gamification methods can develop intergroup relations and empow- er the vulnerable young people. We will reflect on the existing meth- ods and cases of art and education initiatives realized by the project promoters and other organizations in their countries, which will add important aspects to our present work. We will show the main tools and results of the Roma Heroes pilot workshops realized in Hungary since 2017. Afterwards, we describe shortly the Roma theatres in dif- ferent European countries and the monodramas put into the focus by the workshops. Before closing, we will focus on some practical issues and dilemma, which will be relevant regarding the further steps of our work. Introduction • 5 1. NEEDS AND REALITIES Italy: Roma people in Italy The Roma community in Italy consists of about 120-170 000 people, this is 0.25% of the population. Only half of these people (45%) are Italian citizens, most of them originate from countries like Bosnia, Kosovo or Serbia, countries that are not EU members, making it difficult to acquire citizenship. These communities, after the desegregation of former Yu- goslavia, are definitively settled in Italy and do not live a nomadic life despite all the legal hinders. Still today, the law does take charge of the minors until the major age but refuses to legalize their parents if they do not reach the standard for citizenship, such as work and income. Oblig- atory schooling is followed with a certain distrust both from youngsters and parents, as it is perceived often as a form of control. At the reach of the major age citizenship is often refused even for those born in Italy, and while they are not registered either in the originating countries. It has created a generation of invisible youth, living borderline, an easy prey for criminality. Since 2003, a significant number of people is al- so coming from Romania. As EU members, they have free entry but rarely reach the standard for citizenship. These communities are mostly working at collecting and recycling scrap, they are often organized into bigger groups, tend to travel back and forth from their original homes, sending the children to Italian schools only seasonally. Ghettos in Rome There is a Roma community of about 7000 people in Rome, almost 4000 people living in legal camps maintained by the state, segregated 6 • Needs and realities from the rest of the population. There are 8 state-maintained camps in Rome since the early 90ies, and similar ghettos can be found in other cities as well. https://www.21luglio.org/2018/wp-content/up- loads/2019/04/rapporto-annuale-2018.pdf Their goal is to preserve the nomadic culture; however, the reality is far from the political intention. The camps tend to be at far to reach places, near the highways or ag- ricultural sites, which makes it difficult for the residents to access -ed ucation (there is a school bus system for elementary school pupils but not for high school students), work and healthcare. The camps consist of steel huts or mobile homes, surrounded by fences, and guarded by CCTV, however, often there is no public lighting, and public safety is problematic. Hygiene is also insufficient, and the residents are often in bad health, having problems with alcohol, drugs, or live in bad mental condition. The fact that the Roma people are often discriminated in the healthcare system aggravates this situation. Those who immigrated to the country without legal papers, about 15 000 people, are not eligible to healthcare services. The residents of the legal or illegal camps often end up here after being evicted from their homes. Living here is also connected to strict requirements, for example, children have to go to school. Often, no notice is issued prior to the eviction, so the families do not have time to look for alternatives. Applying for social housing is made difficult as one must have at least a five-year legal employment. Unemployment rate is 4-5 times of that of the non-Roma. When look- ing for an employment, it is a huge disadvantage to have the camp as the legal address. Roma people often do occasional work. https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/europe-and-central-asia/italy/ report-italy/ https://www.21luglio.org/2018/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/rappor- to-annuale-2018.pdf Needs and realities • 7 Focused communities Our organization, the Rampa Prenestina, sets its goals focusing on lo- cal action since 2002 when Sebastiano Spinella founded it. Ever since we relate to a small Roma community of around 300 people (of whom around 80 are minors), in the eastern inner suburb of the capital city of Rome, named Campo Gordiani. It is one of the first Roma settle- ments in the city, dating back to the 90ies, mainly of Serbian origin. They are now the 4th generation living in Italy of whom three gener- ations settled in this camp while only the latest two have followed an approximate scholarship, because Serbia is not part of EU there has been and there are still some problems related to citizenship, even for the members of the last two generations who were born in Italy. We can find the highest rate of unemployment among adults here, mainly due to discrimination and poor education. Many families live from rare black work and mainly from improvised work, such as sell- ing flowers, collecting scrap iron, collecting objects from dumps to be sold in small black markets, ultimately begging from door to door, in the streets or by churches, this practice was severely restricted by the law in the latest years. This situation lasted for decades and has pre- served the condition of severe poverty, produced waves of high rate criminal practice ranging from pickpockets, burglary, to more severe crimes such as drug dealing, this latter practice caused great damage to the community, disrupting the traditional family order, by turning the younger generation (who become drug-addicts) against the older one (that perceive drug use as an immoral practice). Younger Generations In the context depicted above, the last generations of youth are grow- ing up with a relatively positive input, on the one hand generated by 8 • Needs and realities new technologies of communication and on the other hand, by the scholarship program for Roma youth launched in the 90‘ies. Most Ro- ma students abandon their higher education studies and despite the general pauperization of the national politics on education, we see today that the younger generations have a clearer awareness about their condition.